Social Media Advertising
Paid Social That Creates
Demand, Not Just Reach
Search waits for somebody to want what you sell. Paid social has to make them want it, which is a harder job and a different skill. This is advertising on Meta, TikTok and LinkedIn, judged on revenue rather than on engagement.
The Difference
Why Paid Social Does Not
Work Like Search
The two are often sold as one budget line, and they behave nothing alike.
On search, demand already exists and the auction decides who meets it. Your job is to show up for the right query at a price your margin can carry. If nobody is searching, there is nothing to harvest and no amount of budget changes that.
On paid social, nobody was looking for you. The creative has to do the work that the search query does elsewhere: interrupt, explain and give a reason to care, in about three seconds. This is why paid social accounts fail on creative far more often than on targeting, and why the platforms have spent the last few years taking the targeting decisions away from advertisers entirely.
The Platforms
Three Platforms,
Three Different Jobs
Honest about which of these is likely to matter to a consumer brand and which is not.
Meta
For most direct-to-consumer brands this is the whole of paid social. The largest audience, the most mature buying tools, and the platform where creative volume matters most. Advantage+ now makes many of the decisions that used to be manual, which shifts the work from audience building to feeding the system enough creative to choose between.
TikTok
Cheaper attention and a younger audience, with a much shorter creative shelf life. What works looks like the platform rather than like an advertisement, which means the assets that perform on Meta usually do not transfer. Worth testing when your product is visual and the demonstration is the pitch.
The most expensive clicks in paid social, and the narrowest fit. For a consumer brand it is usually the wrong room. It earns its place when you sell to businesses, when the order value is large enough to carry the cost per click, or when you are hiring. If none of those is true, that budget belongs on Meta.
The Bottleneck
Creative Is the
Constraint, Not Targeting
Once the platform owns the targeting, the only lever left is what you give it to test.
Meta’s own buying tools now do most of the audience work automatically. That changes what a paid social account needs from you. It no longer needs clever segment building. It needs a steady supply of genuinely different creative to choose between, and most brands cannot produce it fast enough. Accounts stall on creative supply long before they stall on budget.
This is the reason ad creative is offered here as its own service rather than bundled quietly into management. Rotating creative is not a nice-to-have on these platforms. It is the input the system runs on, and running out of it is the most common reason a working account stops working.
Fit
Who This Is
And Is Not For
Hire someone else if
- You want organic posting, community management or a content calendar
- You expect one set of creative to run for a year
- Your category is bought on search intent alone and margins are thin
- You want follower growth as the measure of success
This works if
- Your product is visual, or the demonstration is the argument
- You can supply new creative regularly, or want that handled
- You are willing to judge the channel on revenue rather than on reach
- Your margin can carry a customer who had not heard of you an hour ago
Questions
Questions About
Paid Social
If yours is not here, ask it on the call.
What does social media advertising cost?
Channel Management starts at $1,500 a month for one platform. Both ad platforms sit inside Growth Partner, starting at $4,000, which also includes SEO. Ad spend is separate and is paid to the platform directly.
Is this organic social media or paid?
Paid only. This is advertising bought through Meta, TikTok and LinkedIn. Posting, community management and content calendars are a different job and not one offered here.
Should I start with Meta or Google?
Google, if people are already searching for what you sell, because harvesting existing demand is cheaper than creating it. Meta first if your category is discovery-led, if nobody knows to search for your product, or if the demonstration is what sells it.
How often does creative need to change?
More often than most brands expect, and the platform decides the pace rather than a calendar. When results decay while nothing else has changed, creative fatigue is usually the cause, and the fix is new assets rather than new targeting.
Do you run LinkedIn for ecommerce brands?
Rarely, and it is worth saying plainly. LinkedIn carries the highest cost per click in paid social and suits business-to-business selling, large order values or hiring. For a typical consumer brand that budget does more on Meta.
What is the minimum ad spend?
$5,000 a month for Channel Management, $10,000 for Growth Partner. Paid social needs enough volume for the platform to learn from, and below that it never leaves the learning phase.
Pricing
What Does It Cost
to Work Together?
Published, so you can rule me in or out without booking a call.
Channel Management
Starting at $1,500 /month
You own the plan. I run the channels.
- Campaign build and management
- Conversion tracking and reporting
- Monthly performance call
- SEO is not included at this tier
- Additional channels +$500 each
- Minimum ad spend $5,000/month
- 6 month commitment
Most Popular
Growth Partner
Starting at $4,000 /month
I own paid strategy end to end.
- Everything in Channel Management
- Every channel included, priced as one
- SEO included: technical, on-page and content
- Channel mix and budget allocation
- Creative direction and briefs
- Quarterly CRO roadmap
- 25 hours a month included
- Minimum ad spend $10,000/month
- 3 months, then month to month
Fractional CMO
Starting at $7,000 /month
I own the whole marketing function.
- Everything in Growth Partner
- Email, SEO and site direction
- Contractor sourcing and management
- Quarterly planning with you
- 40 hours a month included
- Minimum ad spend $20,000/month
- 6 month commitment
Let’s Talk
Book a free 30 minute call. I will tell you what I would do with your accounts, whether or not you hire me.
Book a Discovery Call
30-minute strategy session
Prefer to Reach Out Directly?
Happy to talk it through over email or a quick call. I usually reply within a few hours on weekdays.
- greg@digitalkarbon.com
- Massachusetts • Nationwide
Who You Talk To
Me, Every Time
What to Expect
- 30 minutes with me, not a salesperson
- What I would change in your account first
- No pitch deck, no obligation